Chapter 311

Chapter 311

GRRRRIND—!

The insects were ground away by sand.

The fine sand grains rotating at high speed stripped the insects’ hard shells in an instant, like sandpaper.

Kieeee!

The unidentified insects screamed and tried to escape Sand Tornado. But the wall of sand was too firm and solid, leaving no opening.

CRACK—!

With sparks, the insects burst apart.

Unlike their hard shells, their raw flesh was as fragile as a baby’s skin. The sand grains erased the insects’ raw flesh from the world without leaving even a trace.

“Ah!”

Borin and the Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit, who had rushed out belatedly, stopped dead when they saw the huge Sand Tornado rotating before their eyes.

“Ze......on?”

“It’s the Sandmancer.”

The only being in Neo Seoul who could openly create a tornado out of sand was Zeon.

GRRRRIND—!

Sand Tornado was gradually shrinking.

The number of insects trapped inside was also falling sharply.

Sand Tornado, which had soared several dozen meters high, shrank to barely three meters.

Bzzzzzz!

But its fierce pressure did not weaken at all.

At the feeling that they too would be torn apart the instant they were trapped inside it, Borin and the Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit trembled.

VWOOM—!

In that instant, Sand Tornado vanished as if it had been a lie.

“Hoo!”

Zeon let out a faint sigh and placed the sand back into his subspace.

At that, Borin and the Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit flinched again.

‘Damn it! He carries sand in his subspace? Isn’t that cheating?’

‘How are we supposed to deal with that?’

‘Just how wide is his subspace......?’

The countless thoughts that arose in that brief moment made their emotions complicated.

The fact that a powerful being with such bottomless strength existed in the space where they lived made them uncomfortable.

At least this was inside Neo Seoul, so he could only use such limited power. If he went all out in the desert, it was horrifying to even imagine what kind of tragedy would unfold.

It felt as if they had brought a super-large monster into their district.

A Grade S monster that could devastate everything just by breathing.

To the Awakened of the North District, Zeon had that level of presence.

At that moment, Zeon broke the silence.

“What is this?”

“Ah! Those appear to be Chimeras.”

Borin answered quickly.

“Chimeras?”

“They’re insects that never existed before. Their shells are hard, as if they were wrapped in titanium, and they’re mixed with all kinds of insects. They’re lifeforms that could never appear naturally.”

Magic did not work well on the insects raised in the factory’s hidden space.

They would not burn under Flame Magic, and when wind-element Magic was used, they instead rode the wind and retreated, taking no damage at all.

The only thing one could expect to have some effect was Lightning Magic.

That was because their metallic shells were vulnerable to electric current.

Unfortunately, however, there were no Awakened in the Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit who could use Lightning Magic.

There was also the method of stabbing each insect to death one by one with a rapier or cutting them apart, but it was impossible to find and kill every one of the tens of thousands of insects.

Because of that, the Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit had no choice but to struggle against the insects.

What was truly frightening was something else.

Their teeth and the venomous stingers in their tails.

Their teeth, sharper than blades, tore through the specially made coats of the Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit like paper and left wounds.

The venomous stingers in their tails were even more terrifying.

Several elves struck by the venomous stingers lost their lives in an instant.

There had been no time to do anything.

Because of that, Borin and the Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit had no choice but to helplessly watch their precious comrades die.

If Zeon had not appeared in time, countless people in the North District would have lost their lives to these unidentified insects.

Zeon suddenly reached toward the floor.

What he grabbed was an insect that had lost its wings and was still writhing.

He had left only the last one alive.

Kieeee!

The insect screeched and tried to bite Zeon’s arm.

But its teeth could not even scratch Zeon’s coat.

Zeon carefully examined the insect as it thrashed wildly, trying to escape his grasp.

“Grotesque.”

That was his first impression.

Even Zeon, who had experienced countless monsters and insects, had never seen an insect of this form.

The characteristics of dragonflies, spiders, scorpions, cicadas, bees, and every kind of insect were mixed together.

Its temperament was also ferocious, and it kept attacking Zeon without staying still for even a moment.

If Zeon’s grip strength had weakened even slightly, it would have escaped and attacked the people inside the factory.

Zeon stretched out his other hand and grabbed the venomous stinger on its tail. Then the insect thrashed even more madly.

As if it had sensed its own fate.

Crack!

In that instant, Zeon pulled out the insect’s venomous stinger.

Flesh, blood vessels, and internal organs came out along with the stinger.

Even after its venomous stinger was pulled out, the insect did not die and clung stubbornly to life.

Zeon looked at the internal organs that had come out with the stinger.

Borin carefully asked,

“Why the organs?”

“The internal organs found in spiders, bees, and scorpions are all mixed together. Naturally, without the slightest sense of disharmony.”

“Why does that matter?”

“This is Gu (蠱).”

“Gu? What is that?”

“You dig a huge pit that nothing can escape from and put countless insects inside it. Naturally, you don’t give them food. Then they begin eating each other out of hunger.”

“Why would anyone......?”

“The strong eat the weak, and the stronger eat the weaker again. If you keep planting stress and a sense of danger in them that way, at some point, the survivors undergo rapid evolution. They absorb the traits of the ones they’ve eaten and make themselves stronger.”

“You’re saying they create a Chimera naturally?”

Borin’s expression turned grave.

As expected of an intelligent woman, she had grasped the important information contained in Zeon’s words.

Zeon looked at the insect that was still thrashing and said,

“Yes! Artificially made Chimeras are imperfect in many ways. It’s not easy to fuse traits and biological tissues. Above all, because the creator tries to manipulate traits to suit their taste, problems erupt in many areas. But naturally occurring Gu are different. They’re literally naturally occurring, so they don’t have the problems seen in imperfect Chimeras. The Gu here evolved into a form optimized for killing elves. Someone deliberately chose only creatures with such traits and put them into the pit.”

“Good heavens!”

Borin covered her mouth.

If Zeon’s words were true, these insects were no different from the elves’ natural enemy.

Not every elf living in the North District was as strong as Borin or the Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit.

If these insects had been released into the North District, countless elves would surely have lost their lives.

Borin asked Zeon,

“Why are such horrifying lifeforms in the North District?”

“I think I should be the one asking that. This is the North District, isn’t it?”

“Haa! It seems to be Lady Eli’s doing.”

At the worst possible answer, Borin squeezed her eyes shut.

Although Eli was called the Spider Queen, she was still an elf.

Borin could not understand why an elf would create a lifeform that was the worst possible thing for elves.

Whoosh!

In that instant, pure white flames rose from Zeon’s hand.

The flames swallowed the insect in an instant.

Kieeee!

The insect thrashed from the pain of its whole body burning, but soon turned into a handful of ash.

Zeon brushed off his palm and said,

“It seems the Five Poisons Clan has entered Neo Seoul.”

“The Five Poisons Clan?”

“They’re a clan that has survived since ancient times. They lived for over a thousand years, generation after generation, thousands of kilometers southwest of Neo Seoul.”

Borin and the Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit listened closely to a story they were hearing for the first time in their lives.

“The place they lived was originally dense with primeval forests and swarming with countless venomous insects. To survive, the Five Poisons Clan studied those venomous insects, and as a result, they mastered the art of controlling them freely. They passed their secret methods down to their descendants for a very long time. For a full thousand years. They even survived the Great Cataclysm tenaciously and continued their line.”

The world had perished and become a world where monsters ran rampant, but instead of declining, the Five Poisons Clan had flourished.

The insect-type monsters that appeared in the world turned to desert were the perfect lifeforms for testing the Five Poisons Clan’s secret techniques.

The Five Poisons Clan collected insect-type monsters, dug huge pits, and drove them inside.

The insect-type monsters evolved by eating one another, and the final survivor that remained was bred and controlled like their own limbs.

When the colony where the Five Poisons Clan lived had been at its peak, every living creature in the surrounding area had nearly dried up.

The Gu the Five Poisons Clan had controlled back then had been similar to the insects Zeon had just slaughtered. That was why Zeon had recognized them at a glance.

After hearing Zeon’s explanation, Borin was horrified.

“To think such a clan exists in the world. If they’ve entered Neo Seoul, an even greater disaster will surely happen. We need to prepare countermeasures quickly.”

“There is no need to hurry.”

“No, why not? You’re the one who said they’re dangerous, aren’t you? Then we need to prepare countermeasures quickly.”

“They were destroyed.”

“What?”

“I definitely killed them all, but it seems someone survived.”

At Zeon’s murmur, Borin felt goosebumps rise all over her body.

That was because she realized Zeon was the one who had destroyed the Five Poisons Clan, a clan that had tenaciously continued for a full thousand years.

She did not know the circumstances behind it.

Nor did she want to know.

What mattered was that the one who had erased the Five Poisons Clan from the world was Zeon.

If the one who had truly made these grotesque insects was a member of the Five Poisons Clan, then Zeon knew more about them than anyone else.

If it was him, there would be a way to track the descendant of the Five Poisons Clan.

Zeon said,

“So they kidnapped people to raise Gu. Now I finally understand the situation.”

“Then you’re saying they periodically supplied the corpses hanging inside the factory?”

“Yes! To breed the final Gu that survived in the pit, they have to supply fresh blood. Human blood and flesh, rich in nutrients, provide the perfect conditions for breeding Gu.”

“Crazy......”

“Now that we understand the circumstances, let’s go to Lady Cerian. Before this matter grows beyond control......”

“Yes! I’ll guide you. Ah, before that......”

Borin looked with cold eyes at the elves and dwarves lying collapsed inside the factory.

They were the factory workers subdued by the Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit.

They had closed their eyes tightly, as if resigned.

Borin gave an order to the Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit.

“Throw all of them into prison and have Olga interrogate them.”

“Yes!”

The Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit answered in unison.

Fear appeared on the faces of the factory workers.

Interrogator Olga.

She was called an interrogator, but in truth, she was a torture specialist.

There was no one Olga had laid hands on who had not opened their mouth.

A mad elf whose hobby and purpose in life was torture—that was Olga.

Not a single person handed over to Olga had ever come back alive.

Those subdued by the Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit sensed their gruesome end and despaired.

But the Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit showed them not the slightest sympathy.

Borin said,

“Now let’s go to Lady Cerian.”

“Let’s do that.”

Zeon quietly followed her while thinking.

‘Mad bastards are gathering in Neo Seoul.’

Hassim and his subordinates, who were human hunters, and the survivor of the Five Poisons Clan, whom he had thought completely exterminated.

Not a single one of them was sane in any ordinary way.

The frightening thing about madmen was that they did not hesitate to commit things ordinary people could not even imagine.

They had no interest in what consequences their actions would bring, and they had even less intention of cleaning up the situation. Rather, they enjoyed watching events grow beyond control.

The fact that such madmen were gathering in Neo Seoul was not a good thing.

Moreover, the one who had drawn them in was Eli, the second-in-command of the North District.

If things went wrong, the situation could snowball beyond control.

Zeon usually did not want to get involved in Neo Seoul’s affairs unless absolutely necessary. But this time was different.

‘I can’t stand watching mad bastards run wild as they please in my front yard.’